The Sun And The Moon
by SincerelyShania
Summary: The Fourth Great Ninja War had come to an end, and Sasuke had returned to the Village Hidden in the Leaves to recover. With Naruto's assistance, can he succeed in finding happiness in his new life? (Rated M for later chapters).
1. Two Lives, One Sky

He was exhausted, and even he had to abandon his usual pride in admitting so. Both the war and Naruto had left his body ravaged; his left arm had been torn to pieces when the Chidori and Rasengan collided one final time, but to him, the loss of a limb was justified payment for his sins.

Sasuke had fallen into a darkness that even his Sharingan could not see through, but somehow, the "Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja" had never lost sight of the light that guided him. As pathetic as it was, the young Uchiha had to admit defeat; his old friend had something that he was lacking—unconditional care for those around him. No matter how many times Sasuke questioned Naruto's motives—no matter how many times he asked him why he was so obsessed with him—he had always just answered that he continued his pursuit because they were friends. There was a bond between the two powerful shinobi that hatred, or even an ever-raging battle between the wills of the late Indra and Asura, could not sever.

Naruto had always stumbled in front of his comrades, not because he believed he was superior but because he wanted to take the first hit; the lives of those around him meant more to him than his own, and walking in front of his friends and allies was the best way to ensure that he could protect them. Sasuke had forgotten what it felt like to live one's life in service to others. Orochimaru's power seemed more promising to him than a life alongside a bunch of everyday ninja. He was sure that he sealed his fate the day he chose to depart the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but his former teammate spent years following closely behind him in an attempt to save him from himself. In the end, he was offered a life that he did not feel he deserved—the life of a shinobi and ally of the Hidden Leaf Village. Kakashi taking on the role of Hokage, Naruto's heroic influence, and Sasuke's contribution to releasing the Infinite Tsukuyomi swayed the village council, as well as the other Kage, into pardoning him for his prior crimes.

The Sharingan user sat on the roof of the Konoha Hospital, rummaging through his thoughts and memories under the light of the stars. Since his return to the village, he had spent many nights this way; his extended stay in the infirmary left him with an abundance of time to himself. His other former teammate, Sakura, had been overseeing his care. In Sasuke's absence from the village, she had grown strong in many ways, from her superhuman strength to her medical ninjutsu. He attempted to apologize to her on the day that he and Naruto brought their battle to an end, but she refused his apology, saying that as long as he did nothing like he had again, they could call it even. Thanks to her skills as a medic, he was regaining his normal use over his body much more quickly than they had originally anticipated. What would he do once he fully recovered from his injuries?

"Stargazing again, huh?" A voice snapped Sasuke from his musings. Upon glancing to his side, he saw Naruto making his way over to him. "Do you ever sleep?"

"It isn't that I sleep too little; on the contrary, it's that you sleep too much, you loser," the young Uchiha retorted, keeping his gaze on the night sky.

"WHAT?! You're gone for years but somehow you still have that smug attitude of yours! I'm just trying to get a lot of rest so that I can heal as quickly as possible! That's all!"

Sasuke smirked at his companion's outburst. "Whatever you say."

The knucklehead ninja visibly pouted for a moment, and then glanced up at the stars. "It's hard to believe that moments like this could've been lost forever," he stated, a weary smile gracing his lips as he sat next to the young Uchiha. "So many things could've gone wrong, ya know?"

"What is the point of getting hung up on 'what ifs'? We won the war. That should be the end of it," Sasuke replied, secretly skeptical of his own words.

"Y-yeah, but…No, ya know what? You're wrong. Winning the war wasn't the end. Everyone is still scarred from the fighting—men, women, children…Everyone. I don't think…that there was a true winner. We're all hurting from what happened, in one way or another."

The ex-avenger stared silently at his old friend. When had he become so…wise? He was correct—there was no such thing as a true winner in war; it was a fight for survival, but sometimes surviving could be difficult even after the enemy was defeated.

Sasuke examined his surroundings. A wire fence ran along the perimeter of the roof, and laundry was hung out to dry on fine ropes. The village was dim as most people had retired for the night, and the moon shrouded the buildings in faint white light. He and Naruto sat at the base of one of the several water tanks spread out across the rooftop. It was a calm night; a gentle breeze swept through the village, causing leaves to rustle. There was no impending danger for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Hey, Sasuke. I've got a question I've been meanin' to ask you," Naruto stated, propping his leg up and resting his left arm on it.

"What is it?"

"Our first battle at the Final Valley…you could have killed me. I really thought you were gonna, actually. You talked about it a lot—how you wanted to sever our bond or whatever, I mean—but you didn't do it. Why didn't you kill me that day?"

"Hmph. I dunno. Probably would have saved me a lot of trouble, though," Sasuke responded, causing the obnoxious ninja to narrow his eyes in frustration.

"Hey! I'm being serious here!" Naruto exclaimed while gritting his teeth. Although he was getting irritated, it was hard to take him seriously.

"I told you already—I don't know why I didn't."

"Huh. Well, I guess I'll just count my blessings that you decided not to, then! To be honest, I couldn't have killed you either."

"Yeah, I know. You can't end someone's life when you are the one who lost."

"Here we go again with the snarky comments! Man you tick me off!" Naruto shouted. The young Uchiha could never confess it out loud, but he kind of missed his old friend's obnoxious outbursts while he was seeking revenge. "For your information, what I meant was that I couldn't have brought myself to kill you if it had come down to it…I saw your pain, and I wanted to save you from it. I never wanted to be the cause of any of it…"

Sasuke examined the knucklehead ninja. If it had not been for his actions, the ex-avenger may have wandered the darkness until he met his end. "Hn. Soft as always."

"Better to be soft than to be a jerk! Would it kill you to—"

"Thanks," Sasuke interrupted, avoiding eye contact with the hyperactive hero.

"Huh? For what?" Naruto questioned, cocking his head a bit.

"For not giving up on me when I had long-since given up on myself."

Naruto did not reply; instead, he gave a proud smile and a thumbs up. Sasuke grinned in response. The two old friends were back together—a sun and a moon, occupying the same sky.


	2. The Light Of Dawn

Sasuke shivered and groaned while sleeping, nightmares eating away at his mind. Night after night, he feared succumbing to his exhaustion as he knew what was to come: dreams of memories that he did not wish to relive. He wanted so badly to awaken from his nightmares, yet no matter how hard he fought subconsciously, they chained him to his slumber. His mother and father falling in front of him, killing his brother, taking innocent lives in his pursuit of power…These dreams were part of what the hyperactive hero had been referring to when he explained that a war does not mean the end of suffering.

The ex-avenger jerked awake, finally being released from his internal torture. To his surprise, Naruto stood at the left side of his hospital bed with a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You alright?" he questioned, obviously noticing the panic in his best friend's eyes. "You were tossing and turning a lot in your sleep, so I decided to wake you up to make sure you're okay."

"Y-yeah…Thanks," Sasuke replied simply, lightly rubbing his temples. Upon glimpsing toward the window to his right, he noted that the sky was still dark.

The young jinchuriki raised a questioning eyebrow, but did not pry any further. "If you say so. You should probably get some more rest!"

"No, I think I've gotten enough."

"Hm? But we only came in from being on the roof a few hours ago. There's no way you could've gotten much sleep!"

"I explained this to you already—I don't need as much sleep as you, you idiot," the shaken Uchiha retorted, fully expecting one of his former teammate's obnoxious outbursts in response. Almost shockingly, no such reaction came.

"I have them too, ya know." Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at Naruto's confession, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Have what? I don't know what you're talking about," the Sharingan user lied.

"The nightmares. You don't always have to act so strong. We may be ninja, but we're still human; it's okay to feel helpless or whatever sometimes. We experienced some pretty heavy stuff..."

"Nightmares don't bother me."

"Can't you just willingly let me be there for you for once?!" Naruto shouted, slamming his clenched fist into the wall. Sasuke faltered out of surprise; as his all-seeing eyes scanned over his former teammate's expression, he noticed the tears that had begun trailing down the knucklehead ninja's cheeks.

"N-Naruto, why are you…?" The young Uchiha gritted his teeth before finishing his question. He was fully aware that he had been the reason behind many tears in the past, and he did not need to hear that he was the cause once again. "Just leave me alone, loser! Go back to sleep. I can take care of myself; I'm not a weakling like you."

The ex-avenger waited for his old friend's usual defiant words, expecting something along the lines of, "Sasuke! You jerk! You always think you're so much better than everyone else!" Instead, Naruto's blue eyes continued to tremble under the weight of his weeping and his mouth remained tightly shut as if he were suppressing an agonizing scream. Sasuke was taken off guard by the jinchuriki pushing him backwards onto the bed, landing on top of him in the process and pinning the Sharingan user's right arm above his head.

Sasuke blinked sheepishly at his companion. Activating his Sharingan, he found himself returning the piercing gaze that Naruto was already giving him. "What's the meaning of this?!" he yelled angrily.

"It's just like I thought…" Naruto remarked in a hushed tone, seemingly undaunted by the rage in his best friend and rival's voice.

"What is?!"

"Your eyes…You sound angry, but all I see in your eyes is sadness," the knucklehead ninja explained, leaning forward and resting his forehead on Sasuke's; he allowed his eyes to slide shut, and the young Uchiha did not know what to do except for retract his Sharingan.

The outside breeze flowed into the hospital room through the opened window to the right side of Sasuke's bed, rustling the curtains and the hair of the two companions. A silence settled in between the ex-avenger and the jinchuriki as they allowed the cool air of the night to engulf them.

"You know nothing," Sasuke stated, his old friend revealing his aqua colored orbs once again.

"Just stop tryin' to hide your pain from me, would ya?" Naruto retorted calmly. "You think your Sharingan can see everything, but…you're wrong. My eyes can see something that yours can't right now."

"How dare you mock me?! How could your eyes possibly see something that mine can't?!"

"I can see all the pain that you've had inside of you for years, but I don't think you can see mine. Please, Sasuke, I'm begging you: don't let the darkness swallow you back up; if you'd let me, I think I could break through all of your hatred and sadness and help shoulder your shame. The first step to truly understanding someone is sharing their pain; Nagato taught me that. I've tried my hardest for so long to understand yours…So, look at me! Can't you at least get it through your thick skull that I've been hurt, too?!"

The young Uchiha's eyes widened briefly and then relaxed as he took in his former teammate's features; he noted that his eyes, although sad, sparkled with a light that only Naruto seemed to possess.

"Hmph. I'm looking at you, and all I see is a dweeb…" Sasuke responded nonchalantly, resulting in the knucklehead ninja's face contorting to display annoyance before the Sharingan user continued. "…and my best friend and greatest rival."

Naruto seemed to relax his expression at hearing Sasuke's finished thought. "Well, that's a little better, I guess, but I still don't feel like we've made much progress or anything," the jinchuriki stated, looking up toward the ceiling in a contemplating manner; as he remained lost in thought, the ex-avenger beneath him began to feel impatient.

"If something's on your mind, spit it out already, Loser," Sasuke provoked, yanking his arm out of his companion's grasp and causing him to lose his balance. The two skilled ninja made eye contact before, for the third time in their lives, their lips collided. The young Uchiha expected Naruto to pull back obnoxiously as he had the first two times, but the hyperactive hero lingered in the same position, his eyes closed and his chest pressed firmly against his former teammate's.

Sasuke struggled beneath Naruto in an attempt to break their kiss, but he soon figured out that he was still too weak from the war to resist his old friend in their current position; giving into the situation, the Uchiha permitted his eyelids to drift shut.

The two young shinobi remained kissing until the knucklehead ninja pulled back slowly, both of them panting rather heavily. "Why didn't you jump back right away?" Sasuke questioned, confused by the circumstances that had unfolded.

A smirk made its way onto the hyperactive hero's face before he responded. "I figured that if we couldn't strengthen our bond through sharing our pain yet, we might still be able to make some progress with lo—"

"—You're such an idiot," the ex-avenger interrupted, turning his gaze in the direction of the window in defeat; the horizon had taken on a hint of blue as the sun's light began to drown out the darkness of the night.

"I've been a fool my entire life; why stop now?" Naruto chuckled, sitting up on his knees and scratching the back of his head.

Sasuke continued to watch as the world lit up slowly but surely, a realization making its way to the forefront of his mind and then out of his mouth. "The only way to clear the darkness…is to introduce the light."

"Huh?" A confused look overtook the previously goofy expression on the jinchuriki's face.

"I think that I'm ready to get more rest," Sasuke replied simply, not directly addressing his companion. Naruto's eyes followed the Sharingan user's gaze to the sunrise that was taking place, his blue orbs shining the same color as dawn; the knucklehead ninja suddenly plopped down to the side of his former teammate, earning a raised eyebrow in return.

"Hope you don't mind if I crash here for now," Naruto stated, seeming to already drift off into a slumber.

"Tch. Whatever, just don't bother me anymore." The young Uchiha turned his back toward his old friend and faced the window; a comfort washed over him as he observed the light of the sun striving to reach every corner of the Leaf.

Somehow, with the sun at his side, Sasuke secretly felt his nightmares could be kept at bay; he trusted that Naruto's light would once again shine through and keep the dark away. Somewhere along the line of friendship and hatred, much to his dismay, the ex-avenger had come to rely on the bright disposition of the Hidden Leaf's greatest hero.


End file.
